Water shortages pit ranchers against frackers in Texas

From Green Right Now Reports Texas Long Horn (Photo: Wikimedia) A visit to West Texas will invariably take you by two common sites, oil and natural gas wells and pastures...

From Green Right Now Reports

Texas Long Horn (Photo: Wikimedia)

A visit to West Texas will invariably take you by two common sites, oil and natural gas wells and pastures where Texas’ iconic longhorn cattle are grazing.

These are the industries that built the Lone Star state. But now that water’s getting scarce in parts of the state suffering under a two-year drought, tensions are mounting between ranchers and the oil and gas industry, especially the natural gas fracking companies that require millions of gallons of water to drill each well.

This video by The Guardian shows how a water fight is simmering in West Texas.

This story reports that about 8 million gallons of water are needed per fracked well; some place that figure closer to 5 million gallons of water. The more conservative estimate is still enough to serve the daily water needs of about 50,000 Americans, according to the EPA.